Blood and Tears
by nojohi
Summary: During the events of the Sacred Star of Milos, Edward and Winry struggle with their worst fears about each other-Edward's blood and Winry's tears. (AUTHOR'S NOTE: It is recommended that you have seen the Sacred Star of Milos before reading)
1. Chapter 1

**_Winry_**

Winry stands in the middle of a cluster of soldiers, clutching her box of tools and looking around open-mouthed at the chaotic, nearly apocalyptic scene. There's lava streaming from the entire city, giving the night air an orange glow, and shouts are echoing wildly off the canyon walls and the burning remains of the city. She peers through the group of soldiers. Colonel Mustang and Lieutenant Hawkeye have gone ahead several hundred yards, murmuring to each other in confused voices as they take in the nightmarish scene. They're talking to two figures. A girl with long fire-red hair in a scarlet coat— Winry's heart jumps and the blood begins to pound in her ears. That's Edward's coat! Her eye catches a flash of gold and she grips the strap of her tool box tighter. The other figure is Edward himself.

Suddenly there's a commotion and the girl breaks away from the others, sprinting past the huddle of soldiers, who break formation and run towards the colonel. "Julia!" Ed's voice cries. He dashes right by Winry as she turns toward him. His beautiful golden-blonde hair is pulled back in a braid as usual. "Ed!" he doesn't hear her. Turning, she runs after him, following him breathlessly up a set of stairs. He's leaning over the edge of the giant bridge when she gets there. "Ed!" she calls again. This time he turns, surprised.

"Winry!" he's breathing hard and there's sweat trickling from his brow.

"Are you alright?" Frowning, he touches his right elbow and replies

"Uh, I kind of wrecked my arm...sorry." Sighing, she swings the tool box from her shoulder.

"That's because you're always so reckless. Let me look at it." He shrugs his jacket off and sits cross-legged in front of her just as Mustang and Hawkeye come running up. The muscles in his neck and flesh-and-blood arm are tense.

As she kneels beside him and opens her tool box, he explains the situation briefly. "I need to get down in the valley to help stop the lava." She opens the panel on his arm, wincing when she sees the problem. It makes her stomach hurt see her careful work destroyed so brashly. "Um, I can't do much...the gear's broken." She looks up at Ed, frowning, and closes the panel, but doesn't take her hands away. The metal beneath her fingertips makes her heart slow its fluttering a bit. Ed flinches and clenches his teeth in frustration. "Don't you have a replacement?" Mustang asks.  
"I was only planning on making some adjustments." she shakes her head ruefully.

"We'll get a replacement. Come on!" Edward says suddenly.

"Huh?" her head turns toward him automatically. His eyes are glinting gold in the flickering light of the fires around the city and his mouth is curved in a determined smile. Still holding onto his arm, she asks "What are you talking about?"

"There's a mechanic down in the valley. We can get parts from him."

"But how?" He jumps to his feet and Winry follows suit.

"With these!" as he taps the pack strapped to his back, his eyes glitter even more. "Wings!" She jerks back, finally releasing his arm. "Are you crazy?"

"Come on, Winry, we don't have much time!"

**_Edward_**

He finishes adjusting the straps of the giant leather wings and turns to her. "Ready?" she blinks and takes a step back. "This is a really bad idea."

"This is the only way you can get the parts to fix my arm. Come on." He turns around, facing the edge of the cliff. Hesitantly she steps forward and wraps her arms around his shoulders. He reaches back and puts his own arms around her and they stand for a moment, staring into the chaotic swirl of colors and shadowy forms in depths of the valley. "Hang on. It's a long way down." he says, and launches them over the edge.

She screams, arms clenching tighter around him as they plummet downward. He locks his fingers behind her back and rolls into a flip. Suddenly he feels her face press into the back of his neck and he wobbles a bit, trying to ignore the shrieking that is still going on right in his ear. "Cut it out, Winry. You're being a baby." She stops screaming after a minute but doesn't move her face from his neck and he feels his own face growing a little hot. From the fire and lava in the valley. They're almost there. He does one last flip and then they land with a spine-tingling thud on the valley floor.

Except he hits the ground too fast and is propelled face-first into the ground."Oof!" Winry utters another little shriek and then untangles herself from him and rolls away. "Edward..." she says reproachfully as she sits up, her legs splayed awkwardly and white jacket askew and dusted with dirt. He sits up, too, loosening the straps around his chest. She rubs her head and then cocks it at him. "Your lip is bleeding." He worms off the giant wings and touches a finger to his mouth. Sure enough, it comes away bloody. He shrugs and scrambles to his feet, extending the hand to her. She grabs it and he pulls her to her feet, turning towards the village. Beside him, Winry dusts off her pink shirt and frowns down at her hand. "Now you got blood on me."

"Aww, come on Winry, this is no time for that. My arm barely works and I really need to get out there and help Al and Julia." He wipes the blood off on the hem of his shirt. "This way!" As he starts towards the village and she stumbles after him, he rubs the back of his neck, wishing it wasn't so hot in the valley.


	2. Chapter 2

_Winry_

Winry scrubs the blood off between thumb and forefinger as she runs after Edward. _Edward's blood. _And suddenly she's hit with a flashback that takes her breath away. _A sky that broiled with electricity late in the evening as she stood on tip-toe to look out the window. Granny told her to come away from the window and sit down and she did, wondering anxiously if Ed and Al would be alright in the storm. Then, not half an hour later, amid the thunder-cracks, a voice screamed out side their door in desperation. It was Al's voice—she had known that at once, in spite of how oddly hollow it sounded. They ran to the door, threw it open and_—she stumbles a bit, pressing a hand to her forehead and trying to get rid of the memory. _Edward's blood. There was a suit of armor cradling him—that was Al, she knew, somehow, but all she could think about was how much Edward was bleeding. She couldn't focus for a minute, couldn't comprehend where it was all coming from. Then she put her hands over her mouth. His leg was gone. Completely gone. And—oh, gods. His arm too. He was going to die right in front of her. "Winry!" her grandmother snapped, and suddenly her hands dropped from her mouth and clutched the front of her dress. "Yes, okay, yes." She tore herself away and ran to get bandages, tools, anything, blinking furiously to stop the water in her eyes from blurring her vision. Everything passed in a dream like vagueness until he was finally laying on the bed, unconscious, but bandaged—and alive. "Winry, go get some sleep." Granny ordered. She glanced at Al, who sat huddled in the corner and hadn't said a word. She wanted to know what had happened. She wanted to stay there and stare at Ed's blond hair until it erased the memory of red. But she turned and went up the stairs. _

"Ed, slow down." He slows a little and looks back at her with an impatient glare, face smeared with dirt. She has to snap out of it. _She couldn't sleep, though. She just kept hearing Alphonse's hollow scream and seeing Edward's blood. So in the middle of the night she crawled out of her bed and crept down the stairs again. Al was still hunched in the corner, and she couldn't tell if he was looking at her or not, so she went over to where Edward lay. He was still asleep or unconscious, but restlessly so. She was crying now, and felt sick to her stomach looking at him, so she climbed up onto the bed next to him and wrapped her arms around him, careful not to get near his wounds. He murmured and shifted, and she felt his arm come around her shoulders and his hand come to rest on top of her head. Tilting it to look up at his face, she saw that his eyes were half-open, looking down at her. "Edward." She whispered. _

"_Winry." he whispered back. Then she buried her face in his shoulder and cried until she fell asleep. _

Winry stumbles to a stop and falls on her knees, panting a little. "Edward." She calls out. He stops and turns with a look of exasperation. "What? We're in a hurry, come on." She puts a hand to her chest, trying to calm down. She's never told him about the nightmares she had for so long. She doesn't know if he even remembers her crawling up beside him.

_Edward_

He walks back to where she's kneeling on the ground. "Come on." There's something a little scary in her blue eyes when she looks up at him. Ed rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just a little dizzy!" she snaps, getting to her feet with a wobble. "Did you have to spiral so much on the way down?" He looks up at her—because they're standing on a slope—in disbelief.

"Winry!"

"I'm just saying, if you hadn't-"

"We _need _to get my arm fixed! Julia's in trouble."

"Well if you hadn't broken it in the first place—you always break it-"

"_You _made it!" That is a mistake. He takes a step back, a vein in his neck pulsing. Her eyes are definitely twinkling with scary now, and he thanks heaven she doesn't have a wrench handy.

"Well, if you had a _real _arm, it would probably break too because you're so reckless and you never drink any milk." He blinks.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he asks incredulously, raising his voice. "You're just saying random stuff now!"

"Am _not_!" She screams back, balling her hands. "Milk makes your bones stronger, and it also makes you grow!" He clenches his fist and leans forward, anger bursting into flame in his blood. "Who are you calling so short he might as well be a newborn baby?! You're the one who cries like a baby!"

"Well maybe that's because you never cry!" There's silence. Shadows strike harsh lines across her face and her earrings glint with firelight. They both stand still, suddenly subdued. "Edward, that first day, you didn't even..." he has a sudden memory of her arms wrapped around his chest and her tears soaking his shoulder. She'd fallen asleep, and he'd lain awake, what was left of his arm and leg endlessly aching, the hand he still had resting on her hair. He takes a step back as heat rises to his face. The stupid valley is so hot. He needs to help Al and Julia stop the lava. "...drink your milk." He frowns. "Huh?"

"You didn't even drink _one _glass." She says. "Maybe if..." he stares at her with incredulity, then slaps his forehead. "Dammit, Winry! This is important!"

"I..." she begins, but then the ground rumbles as the lava begins to erode it. It shakes violently under their feet and he's thrown onto his back. Winry staggers, trying to keep her balance, but falls forward anyway, landing on top of him. "Ow!" He's about to shove her away when he sees a huge chunk of the cliff break off above them and plummet downward. Instinctively he throws his arm around her and rolls sideways, squeezing his eyes shut. The rock hits the ground behind his back and bounces off to the side. A shower of smaller rocks and bits of dirt batters at his head and shoulder for a minute, then everything is calm again. He opens his eyes, looks into Winry's scrunched-up face inches from his own, and realizes his hand is resting on her head. Her eyelashes are pressed against her cheeks and her nose is crinkled. Ed gulps and sits up quickly. "You okay?" She sits up too, rubbing her elbow and finally opening her eyes. Strands of hair are falling all over her face. "Yeah." He helps her get to her feet and dusts himself off. "See?" He says. "This is why I need to get out there and help them!"

"Okay, okay." She sighs, smoothing her hair back in place and tucking stray pieces back into her ponytail. "Let's go."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Winry**_

As they scramble up over the ledge, the sound of many voices echoes off the cliff walls. When Winry looks over the top, the valley dwellers are filing hastily towards safety under the direction of an elderly man. Ed leans over and shouts "Oi, old man Gon!" The old man glances toward them and his eyes widen in shock. "What are you doing here? You need to get somewhere safe. The lava's coming!" Ed lifts his now nearly useless automail arm with a grimace "Yeah, I can't stop it until my arm is fixed!" Winry leans forward and calls out "Please, sir, could you lend me some parts?" The man looks even more surprised and slightly interested now. "Oh, you're his mechanic?" She nods, biting her lip. Ed vaults over the wall using his good arm and she climbs after him, taking the hand he offers. They scramble down the slope until they've reached the old man. "Could you take us to your shop, please?" Winry asks, blinking up at him.

"I know the lava's coming, but I need both arms to use alchemy so I can stop it." Ed adds. The man looks at Winry curiously and then replies "Alright, this way, then, hurry." They follow him through the streets and quickly moving lines of people into a tangle of narrow walkways between close-built, worn-out looking houses until he ducks into a doorway and they step after into his shop. The old man hurries to the table and begins opening boxes. "So you're the mechanic?" he asks again. "What's your name, young lady? Your work is incredible! Which parts do you need?"

"Um, thank you." Winry says, not sure which question to answer first. "Yes. My name is Winry Rockbell." she steps over to the table and peers into the jumble of parts inside one of the boxes. "Wow, you have some good pieces. I'll need one of these-" she points to a gear and old man Gon hands it to her. "And..." they pick through the boxes for several minutes, finding the parts she needs as the old man comments and questions her about Ed's automail. Ed sighs and taps his foot, trying—unsuccessfully, as one of them's broken—to cross his arms. Winry ignores him until she's gathered all the parts. "Okay, sit down." he complies.

"How long will this take?" He shrugs out of his jacket and she lifts up the arm, holding a screwdriver between her teeth and opening the panel on his shoulder. She takes the screwdriver out of her mouth and begins to work the smashed gear out of it's place. Suddenly a dark-haired young man comes bursting through the door, but she doesn't look up from her work. "Old man Gon! You need to get out of here-" he breaks off, staring. "Whoa, this is _your _mechanic? She's so pretty!" the muscles in Edward's neck tenses and he fumes at the newcomer. "What are you going on about? She's my mechanic! I don't keep her around for her _looks_." his tone is scornful and he tosses his head. Winry feels the urge to tug the now rather mussed golden braid that falls down the back of his neck. She jerks the gear free perhaps a bit more roughly than necessary. "Ow!" Edward yelps. "Winry!"

"You don't keep me around, anyway." she mutters under her breath.

"Huh? What did you say?" She sticks the screwdriver back in her mouth and sets the broken gear aside, grabbing the new one and sliding it carefully into place. "Nothing." She says shortly and rather indistinctly, around the wooden handle in her teeth. "Hold still." She fits the gear into place against the other gears, grabs a screw and quickly tightens it in place and closes the panel on the arm. "Okay, try it now." He lifts his arm off the table and rotates it at the shoulder and wrist a few times, then bends the elbow and flexes the fingers. He grins. "Great!" jumping to his feet, he grabs his jacket and pulls it on as he runs for the door. Winry jumps up and runs after him. Just as he reaches the door, it swings inward suddenly, smacking him in the forehead and knocking him backwards. "Gah!" she catches him under the arms, staggering back under the sudden weight, as a tall, dark-haired man with narrow eyes strides through the door. "Colonel!" she says in surprise, pushing Ed upright. "What the hell?" he groans, touching his forehead gingerly. "Watch where you're going, Colonel!"

"Fullmetal, what's taking you so long? We need to get out there." Ed frowns at him.

"How can you help? We're trying to prevent fiery doom, not spread it." Colonel Mustang looks offended. "I can do things other than flame alchemy, you know." Ed rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh, right. Well then let's get going. Winry!" he turns toward her.

"Hmm?"

"You stay here with old man Gon. Or better yet, get outta the valley. Your skills aren't much good for this sort of thing." She raises an eyebrow at him, resentment bubbling in her throat.

"Oh really? Then what do you call this?" She grabs his right arm and waves it in front of his face.

"Gah! Okay okay, yeah, thanks." He pulls away from her and starts for the door again. "Just stay away from the lava, okay?"

"What, did you think she was gonna strip and go bathe in it?" the younger Milosan man asks with a scoff and a bit of a leer towards her. Edward's fists clench instantly and his mouth forms a hard line. "Hey, pal-" but before he can get out another word, Winry grabs the screwdriver off the table and whips furiously it into the man's head. He stumbles back into the wall with a cry of pain. "Winry..." Ed looks at her with furrowed brows, blond hair falling over his face and a little bit of blood still trickling from his lip. She waves a hand at him. "Just go, Ed. I'll be fine." He hesitates a moment longer, then frowns in determination and whirls toward the door. He and Mustang disappear into the smoky twilight. As the door closes after them, she picks the wrench up off the floor without a glance at the man eying her warily from the corner, and slumps into a chair with a sigh. "We should leave the valley." Old man Gon says. She shakes her head. "I want to stay here—Ed and Al are still in danger." The old man shrugs, then turns toward the younger Milosan.

"I think you'd better go ahead." The man nods and scuttles out the door without a word, and old man Gon pulls up a chair next to Winry. "Have you known those brothers a long time?" Winry sits up straight in her chair and folds her hands on her lap. She nods. "We've known each other our whole lives." He glances towards the window, expression grave.  
"They've got themselves in a dangerous situation." She smiles at this, a little wryly.

"Edward's always reckless. I think they're always in dangerous situations, ever since they left home..." trailing off, she stands up and begins packing up her tools, tucking them away carefully in her pack. "They always end up okay, though. They've got each other."

"And you." A bright smile lights her face at this, and she feels a shiver of warmth in her chest.

"Yeah. Ed literally couldn't walk without me. I wish he'd stop smashing up his arm, though." Zipping up her pack, she slips the wrench inside her jacket and continues "What if I can't get there next time he breaks it?" She shakes her head. "Geez. He'll probably never learn, though. He's so thick-headed...at least Al is with him. He has more sense." The old man reaches over and pats her hand.

"I'm sure they'll be alright."

"Mmm." They sit in silence for a long while. Suddenly the floor shakes and there are cries from outside. Winry swings her pack over her shoulder and rushes to the window, leaning out. Old man Gon peers out beside her. She catches her breath at the sight—the lava is pouring steadily closer, spilling over the edge into the water. "Ed!" she flings herself away from the window and runs for the door.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Edward**_

"Ed!Al!" Ed turns away from Julia's unconscious form to see Winry running towards them.

"Winry!" he says in surprise. She stops at the foot of the slope and stares up at him, her blue eyes almost impossibly wide. "Are you okay?" he stands up.

"Yeah." lifting his right arm. "The arm made a lot of difference...I'll have to thank old man Gon, too." Her eyes are so wide and bright it looks as if they are about to spill tears. Ed feels his heartbeat quicken, then movement beyond her catches his eye just as Al and Mustang notice, too, and they all blink in shock at the gigantic crowd of Milosan people staring towards them. "Whoa...I guess we'd better get them out of here." Then suddenly, from above, there is a wave of cheers. They all look up to see a mass of people atop the cliff. "Milos is free!" someone shouts. The crowd at the edge of the water takes up the cheer. Ed tears his eyes away and looks back at Winry. Her eyes are fixed on something behind him now. He glances around and sees that she is staring at Julia's bloody form and the remains of her left leg. When he turns around again she looks sick. "Winry..." she sways, and he slides down the slope just in time to catch her under the arms. "Hey hey hey. Winry?" She straightens, clinging to his arms for support, face pale. His throat tightens. "Are you okay?"

"Fullmetal!" his head turns toward Mustang automatically. "We need to get the girl to a hospital." Ed nods, and Al gently picks up the unconscious Julia and makes his way down the slope with Mustang following. Winry is still holding onto him, so he takes her hands gently from his arms and turns around, resting them on his shoulders instead and then lifting her onto his back and starting after the others. After a moment, Winry says "What if your arm breaks and I can't get there to fix it? What if it's not strong enough to-" she takes a deep breath and rests her forehead against his shoulder. He waits for her to finish, feeling a bit sick himself. Finally she says "I'm okay now." He pauses to let her slip off his back and walk beside him, glancing sideways at her. Sections of her long, pale hair fall past her chin as she stares at the ground, and her cheeks are flushed now. She looks almost feverish. There's a hard knot in his gut. "Hey." he says "...don't be stupid. My arm gets wrecked all the time because I rely on it so much." She looks up at him, eyelids fluttering. Her lips curve into a small, grateful smile. Then her fac hardens a bit. "You do need to stop being so reckless, though. I can't drop everything and go running all over Amestris forever. I have other clients, you know." He rolls his eyes and rubs the back of his head.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"You could...come home." His shoulders stiffen and he lifts his chin.

"You know I can't do that, Winry. Until we get our bodies back, Al and I don't have a home."

"Right." Crossing her arms and tilting her nose up she says airily "Well then I guess you can stop crashing at our house like you own the place and expecting Granny to make you stew and me to make you pie." Open-mouthed, Ed stares at her for a second, then snaps his jaw shut and clasps his hands behind his head, defiantly closing his eyes. "Geez. It's not like you're the only person in Amestris who can make apple pie. You learned it from Gracia-san in the first...place..." he trails off, opening his eyes. Winry's staring at the ground again. Ed drops his hands to his sides. He remembers rushing to the Hughes' house to find Winry huddled over a sleeping Elicia...and the tears streaming down Winry's face later that night as she told him about making apple pie. He hates it when Winry cries. Just thinking about it makes him feel a bit panicked. Most of all he hates that it's always his fault. Since they were young, it seems every tear she's shed has been because of him. "Winry, I..." She shakes her head. "It's fine, Ed. I'm okay. Just...ready for us to get out of here, I guess." He puts his hands in his pockets. They're almost to the lift that will take them out of the valley. "Yeah." Glancing ahead to where Al is cradling Julia's still-unconcious form, he adds "I hope Julia's going to be okay...Milos is finally free, just like she wanted." He jumps aboard the lift and turns to offer a hand to Winry. "Come on. Let's get out of this valley."

Edward strolls slowly off the bridge and toward the train station, hands in his pockets and head bent in thought. "Hey!" he looks up. Winry is standing a little ways from the edge of the ravine. He turns and makes his way over to her. "Where's Al?" she asks. Edward grins.

"Saying goodbye to Julia. I thought I'd give them some time to talk alone." Winry raises an eyebrow.

"Oh? That's interesting." She turns in the direction of the bridge and leans forward a bit, shading her eyes with one hand. "Hmm. Can't see much from here."  
"You can interrogate him later if you must." He reaches out and grabs her by the arm, pulling her back from the edge a bit. "Got everything? The train will be here soon." She turns back to him and nods.

"I guess we can have lunch on the way. I packed some sandwiches and milk."

"Aw, give it up already. I'm not going to drink the milk." Her eyes flash suddenly.

"Would you quit being like that? It's not like the world revolves around you."

"Well I'm sorry! You're always trying to get me to do things that aren't going to happen, so what am I supposed to think?"

"I don't know. _Do _you think?" She leans forward threateningly and he hastily takes a step back. "That's the problem. You don't do much thinking!" she raises a fist and he takes another step back. "If you did, you'd..." Winry blinks, her expression changing suddenly. "Wait. Stop." she waves a hand at him and he backs up again, frustration boiling in his gut. "I'm not doing anything! Why do you have to-"

"Edward, _stop._" He shuffles warily, and she lunges forward just as he feels the heels of his boots tip back abruptly into nothingness. "Whoa!" he flails his arms for a split second, then he grabs Winry's hands, which are clutched tightly in the front of his shirt. They stare at each other, wide-eyed, not breathing. Edward swallows hard. Then, slowly, with Winry still hanging onto him, he maneuvers sideways until they're both well away from the edge. Winry puts a hand over her mouth. Gently, he pries the other one from the front of his shirt and holds it between them, still clutched in his right hand. She's shaking, and his chest feels gashed. Automatically, his other hand reaches out and rests on her head. "Winry-" Winry takes her hand away from her mouth and laughs. It feels like a bucket of cold water has just been dumped on him. She's _laughing. _Suddenly Al appears. "Nii-san!" He stops in his tracks, taking in the scene. "What are you-" Face flushing, Edward drops Winry's hand and stomps away. Her laughter echoes off the walls of the ravine and pounds insistently at his ear drums. Ed crosses his arms and makes a "Puh!" of disgust. "Come on, Al, we're going to miss the train!" He shouts without looking back. "The colonel and the lieutenant are waiting for us." As he approaches the station, Winry's giggling face and bright blue eyes flash in his mind and he frowns in annoyance. But the simmering pocket of guilt and helplessness that grows with each tear she sheds cools a bit at the sound of her laughter.

THE END


End file.
